I have now been away from home for exactly 200 days, and in Australia for 198. It is time for the work to end and the travelling to begin. For the past month and a half I have been living in a flat in Chippendale, not far from the city center, and sharing a room with my friend Rachel from the jillaroo school.
The past months have been very good, I have enjoyed only working one job and having more free time to relax, have fun with friends, and read. It was bizarre to be in a hot climate over the holidays but quite nice as well. On Christmas day I had a BBQ in a park with some friends (threw some prawns on the barbie- Aussies don't really say shrimp so the stereotypical phrase is a bit off) and then went to the beach and went swimming. New years eve I worked during the day and then hung around and drank with some workmates who finished at the same time. We got to enjoy the awesome view of the Opera House and city for free, while everyone else there had bought expensive tickets. It was a cool opportunity.
Other than that I have just been planning my travels! On Tuesday I am going back to Tasmania to go on a four day bushwalk on the Tasman Peninsula. Then I will come back to Sydney for about a week, mostly because my work is having a massive once a year staff party that it would be quite a shame to miss. After that I'm saying goodbye to Sydney and heading up to Cairns to meet my Norwegian host brother Sondre and his friend for a week. Next I'll be going to New Zealand for three weeks before coming back to Australia. I haven't planned too much what I'll do then, but I'm thinking come back to Melbourne since it sounds like a place I would really like (the Seattle of Australia, perhaps?) and from there I'd like to get another job to save up more money before going to Asia in April (ish). Ideally I would like to have a very different experience from the one I've been having for the past six months, so I think I'm going to aim for a country pub job in Northern Territory or Western Australia. But who knows, I'll wait and see what opportunities pop up.
A note about my address- my work abroad organization, International Exchange Programs, has joined with another organization so mail should now be sent to the new one. However, since I'll be on the go I won't get anything til I'm back in Australia. But if you would like to send me anything between now and the beginning of March, you can send it to this address and I will eventually get it:
C/o Work n Holiday
3/362 La Trobe Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
Australia
Questions, comments?
Cheers to all!
